Glass Joe
Glass Joe is the easiest character to beat in any version of Punch-Out!! he is in. He has poor defensive skills and takes quite a while to mount any offense. His lone signature maneuver is his "Taunt Punch" in which he takes a few steps back, shakes his gloves, mumbles a few words and then rushes forward to unleash his right hook, which can be easily be counter-punched for an immediate knockdown. Nicknamed "France's Glass Jaw", Glass Joe is by far the easiest opponent in all the games. He has lost 99 times and won once, in a freak accidental win against Nick Bruiser , states the Official Nintendo Magazine Punch-Out!! programme. The intro theme for him in all games is La Marseillaise, the national anthem of France. Appearances Glass Joe first appeared as the first opponent in the arcade classic [[Punch-Out!! (arcade)|''Punch-Out!!]] in 1984. He made his next appearance on the Nintendo Entertainment System game [[Punch-Out!! featuring Mr. Dream|''Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!]] in 1987; once again as the very first opponent in the minor circuit. Glass Joe didn't appear directly in the 1994 Punch-Out!! game, but was linked to two characters in the game: Gabby Jay as his former boxing student and Nick Bruiser as the only boxer Joe had (allegedly) ever defeated. He later re-appeared in the fifth game in 2009. Glass Joe has also appeared as a Hasbro Action Figure and in a Topps trading card series and on a Punch-Out!! Garbage Can. Glass Joe also made a cameo appearance in Captain N: The Game Master in the episode Videolympics, where he is seen boxing his own shadow and he loses. ''Punch-Out!!'' (1984) Glass Joe first appeared as the first opponent in the arcade classic in 1984. He's incredibly easy and is mostly used as a practice opponent. He'll attack very little and will almost never dodge the player's punches. His attacks are extremely slow, he has really poor defensive skills and he has no actual unique punch like everyone else in the game. He's practically just a punching bag. ''Punch-Out!! featuring Mr. Dream'' (1987–1990) He made his next appearance on the Nintendo Entertainment System game [[Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!|''Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!]] in 1987; once again as the very first opponent in the Minor Circuit. He's still extremely weak and almost never punches or blocks punches. While he executes his Taunt Punch, it's very weak and if he's punched before executing it, he'll be knocked out no matter how much health he has left. He's mostly in the game for players to learn how to use punches and avoid attacks. ''Punch-Out!! (2009) Glass Joe makes a returning appearance in [[Punch-Out!! (Wii)|''Punch-Out!!]] as the first opponent in the Minor Circuit. In the Wii version of Punch-Out!!, he is shown to be a somewhat nervous Frenchman with a love for baguettes and coffee. He retains his frailness and status as a mere punching bag for beginners, alternating between guarding his upper and lower torso. He does not throw punches often until he performs his "Vive La France" taunt. He is voiced by Christian Bernard, and speaks legitimate French. '''Star Opportunities: ' *Hit him during his taunt. *Hit him while he recovers from an attack. *Counter his left jab with a right punch. *Counter his right uppercut with a left punch. *Occurs when pounding him during the beginning of the fight without stopping. (Left Jab, Right Jab, Left Jab, Right Hook, Left Hook, Right Hook, etc.) * Instant KD Trick: '''Hit him with a hook after his Vive la France taunt. '''Instant KO Trick #1: Hit him with a 3-star uppercut after his Vive la France taunt. Instant KO Trick #2: '''Uppercut him anytime after he gets up from the 2nd KD in the same round. '''Attacks: *''Taunt'': He will do a taunt, which he always does at the start of a round, by lowering his arm, raising his chin, and laugh at you. Hit him when he flashes yellow for a star. *''Viva La France'': He will go to the back of the mat, do a long taunt while saying "Eh, eh! Vive la France!", go back to the middle of the mat, and does a right uppercut. Countering it with either a normal punch, a one-star uppercut, or a two-star uppercut gives him an OHKD. Countering it with a three-star uppercut gives him an OHKO. He will start attacking after this taunt. *''Right Uppercut'': Easily telegraphed, he will grunt, preparing to attack, and strike with a right uppercut. Can be dodged, but can't be blocked and ducked. At full stamina, it roughly takes ten Right Uppercuts to knock you down. *''Left Jab'': Also telegraphed, he take a step back, preparing to attack, and jab you. Easier to evade, since you can block and duck this attack, unlike his uppercut. At full stamina, it roughly takes ten Left Jabs to knock you down. Glitch: At the start of the fight, hook him when he taunts, then hook him when he is going back to the middle for another star, then throw in another hook, then do three jabs, three hooks, three jabs, three hooks, and immediately use the two-star uppercut to knock him down. When he gets up, landing any punch before he does the taunt gives you a star, and knocks him back. Title Defense mode Glass Joe returns in Title Defense to defeat Mac and win the champion's belt. When you battle him, he has gained some protective headgear from his doctor (which are allowed after suffering 100 losses) and learned some fake-out moves, allowing him to actually be a challenging opponent (actually defeating many players who come across TD Glass Joe for the first time...). Also, because of his headgear he only needs to guard his stomach, meaning that his previous bad between-punches defense now has been fixed. A Star Uppercut will knock his headgear up into the air, allowing you a good opportunity to have you hit his face with your fists . Star Opportunities: ''' *Hit him during his taunt. *Hook him while he recovers from an attack. (Remember that he has the headgear, now, so you can't jab him for this star) *Counter his left jab with a right hook. *Counter his right jab with a left hook. *Counter his right uppercut with a left hook. *Counter his delayed right uppercut with a left hook. *While his headgear is knocked off, hook him when the headgear turns yellow. *When he dodges an uppercut, hook him as he comes back. '''Instant KD Trick #1: '''Hit him with a hook after his Vive La France taunt. '''Instant KD Trick #2: '''Hit him with a hook after his Liberte taunt. '''Instant KO Trick #1: '''Hit him with a 3-Star Uppercut after his Vive la France taunt. '''Instant KO Trick #2: '''Hit him with a 3-Star Uppercut after his Liberte taunt. '''Instant KO Trick #3: '''Hit him with 50 total jabs. '''Attacks: *''Taunt'': Different from his Contender-version, he taps his helmet, while saying one of the two lines, showing that you can't jab him. Hook him when he flashes yellow for a star. *''Right Uppercut'': Not much difference except it's a bit faster and stronger. At full stamina, it roughly takes seven Right Uppercuts to knock you down. *''Left Jab'': Not much difference except it's a bit faster and stronger. At full stamina, it roughly takes seven Left Jabs to knock you down. *''Delayed Right Uppercut'': A delayed-version of the Right Uppercut, which many people consider this move to be the deadliest move he has, simply because it looks very similar to his regular Right Uppercut, and it's slightly stronger. At full stamina, it roughly takes six Delayed Right Uppercuts to knock you down. *''Viva La France'': Almost the same, except that you can only hook him for an OHKD (unless you use an uppercut), and the timing to do it is a bit earlier than his Contender version. *''Liberté'': The delayed-version of the Viva La France taunt, and instead of a right uppercut, it's a left jab. *''Quick Attack: Glass Joe runs around in a flurry and then stops to punch. It can throw off newcomers when he does this. '''Infinite:' From the start, do a left hook on his taunt to get a star, but immediately use it. To do the infinite easily, either do the four-jab combination (Left Jab, Right Jab, Left Jab, Right Jab, Left Hook) or the five-jab combination (Right Jab, Left Jab, Right Jab, Left Jab, Right Jab, Left Hook), then immediately use the star to get his headgear opened, again. This is vital to getting the 50-Jab challenge. Exhibition challenges Challenger: # Knock Glass Joe down 3 times and let him win...by decision! # Find the one-punch-knockdown weak spot. # Win the fight without dodging, ducking, or blocking a punch! Title Defense: # Win the fight and land EVERY punch thrown! # Land 50 jabs... # Defeat Glass Joe in only 4 punches!!!! Physical Appearance Glass Joe is perhaps most well known for his trademark long, red hair, which has changed a little during the years. During his first appearance in the arcade Punch-Out!!, his hair was red, although it was quite dark and his hair was longer on his right side of the face than on his left. In Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, his hair remained relatively the same, but it became a lot more orange in color. His hair turned into a little bit more darker, but still remained more orange in it's color in the Wii installment of Punch-Out!!. In addition, Joe's hair is longer than before, now sporting a large curl that partially covers his right eye. Glass Joe's physique isn't very remarkable when compared to the other boxers, yet he still sports a very well cut torso, complete with six pack abs.. He wears red boxing gloves, red boots and white boxer shorts with red stripes on the sides. As shown in the Wii Punch-Out!!, he wears a black bodysuit on his free time. Personality Matching his weak physique, Glass Joe constantly complains about his pain in between rounds. He can be heard complaining about such things as his gloves being too tight, being too old for fighting, his stomach hurting and most importantly about his weak jaw. In Punch-Out!! featuring Mr. Dream, He even commonly asks if he has time to take a nap before the fight and is eager to retire. In the Wii Punch-Out!!, Glass Joe is a lot more energetic than in his previous appearances. He tries to gain the audience's cheering and even tries to threaten Little Mac. He seems to have a passion for baguettes, croissants and coffee, as hinted in the Wii installment of Punch-Out!!. Quotes Punch-Out!! featuring Mr. Dream (NES): * "Do I have time to take a nap before the fight?" * "Make it quick... I want to retire!" * "This is my last match! I'm too old for fighting!" * "Watch the jaw!! Don't hit my jaw!" Punch-Out!! (Wii): *"Bonjour, bonjour! Je suis Glass Joe! Ha-ha!," meaning "Hello, hello! I am Glass Joe! Ha-ha!" *"Bonjour, bonjour! Ahhh!" meaning "Hello, hello! Ahhh!" *"Les mains me font mal, les gants de boxe sont trop serrés," meaning "My hands are hurting, the boxing gloves are too tight." *"Ha! Une, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, KO!" meaning "Ha! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, KO!" *"Glass Joe! Euh, euh, euh..." *"Hey-hey! Vive la France!" meaning "Hey-hey! Long live France!" *"Attention mon menton!! Ne frappe pas mon menton!" meaning "Watch out for my chin!! Don't hit my chin!" *"Je viens te chercher!" meaning "I'm coming after you!" *"Mon docteur﻿ a déclaré que tu es mauvais pour ma santé." meaning "My doctor declared that you're not good for my health." *"Ma tête est en plein forme, mais mon estomac est en bouillie..." meaning "My head, it is in perfect shape, my stomach, it is mush..." *"Hey! Hey! Liberté!" meaning "Hey! Hey! Liberty!" * "J'AI GAGNÉ!!!" meaning "I WIN!!" Doc Louis Tips: *''"Dodge! Dodge!! Dodge and counter! Dodge and counter! You got it?"'' *''"Whaddya you say, Mac baby? Let's work on Glass Joe to the Big Apple. Greet this sucka with the Star Punch!"'' *''"Glass Joe!? What kinda name is that? Let's greet this sucka with the Star Punch."'' *''"Listen, Mac. If your punches are blocked, you're gonna tire out."'' *''"Woowee, Mac baby. Let's give Glass Joe a little respect here. He can always take a whoopin'!"'' *''"Hey champ, Glass Joe's trying to fool you with his hook. Wait for him to punch, and then get out of the way."'' *''"Check it out, son. That headgear is protecting his jaw. There's gotta be a way to knock it off. Find it, Mac!"'' Trivia *Both Glass Joe and Gabby Jay are very similar to each other, which could be explained by the fact about Glass Joe being Gabby Jay's boxing instructor. They are weak and even have the same boxing record of 1-99, with Glass Joe's only victory being against Nick Bruiser and Gabby Jay's against Glass Joe. Also, they both have the initials "G.J." *Little Mac can actually obtain a protective headgear similar to Glass Joe's by suffering 100 defeats, much as Glass Joe did when he got his own. Glass Joe gaining his headgear possibly hints at this being part of the WVBA's regulations. *Glass Joe can be knocked down 5 times in both Contender mode and Title defense, unlike Von Kaiser to Don Flamenco (King Hippo doesn't count), who can get knocked down 4 times in Contender mode, then 5 times in Title Defense, which is ironic. *Even more ironic is that 50 jabs will automatically defeat Glass Joe in Title Defense, yet in Contender mode, he can endure even more than 100. It's possible that his head has recieved so much damage after his first fight with Little Mac that it barely withstand any more, let alone 50 jabs. *At full health, without ever finishing a stun or countering, he can take up to 34 punches. *Of all the World Records on Punch-Out!! Wii, Glass Joe is the only one that utilizes a glitch that stops time during the taunt, by throwing a left hook at a specific time. See here. Category:Characters Category:Punch-Out!! arcade characters Category:Punch-Out!! console characters Category:Punch-Out!! featuring Mr. Dream characters Category:Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! characters